just wondering if anyone has had any success using full led light for their reef tank. in know some have had luck with soft coral using the marine land but has anyone had luck with sps or lps and is so what type of wattages. led output per watt is much higher so you wouldnt need as many watts correct maybe down to 1-2 watts per gallon instead of 4-5?
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anyone? from what ive been reading 50watts of led is the equivalent of 150watts of metal halide so would 60 watts be enough for my 46gal bowfront that should be equivalent to about 180watts of metal halide. is this enough or would i need more
Watts per gallon is an outdated formula for lighting needs. I can put 300 LED moonlights over my tank and have 4 watts per gallon but I’m not going to be able to sustain coral let alone grow corals. Maybe a mushroom or 2 but that’s about it.
What makes lights effective is the intensity of the light, the reflectors, the color spectrum, and the quality of the components.
We have several people using LEDs to light their tanks with success. If you can make it to this month’s meeting we’re having a presentation on lighting, par, spectrum etc. as well as some live par readings from different lights so we’ll be able to compare what has the best penetration and coloration.
thanks i am gonna try my best to make it to the meeting but work will probably get in the way. the leds i am looking at are about 55 lumens per watt for the the whites and about 18 lumens per watts for the blues (and yes i am looking at the proper color temps and wavelengths for each respectively). i am also looking into putting focusing lenses on some of them to increase par at the sand bed
I have been using Led’s for about 1 month now, but I kept my 2 VHO bulbs also. I purchased a DIY setup from a former member of this club who built it for his 265 gal tank and was getting very good growth and coloration on his SPS corals.
I started a thread with some pics about my coversion from MH lights. Here is the link to the thread.
http://delreefclub.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=28&topic=5009.0
And in the members tank forum I have a video posted also.
craig thanks for putting that nicely
i am using 2 AI SOL blues over my 90 gallon and im loving it. coral growth and color is outstanding. i also have a thread on here. reminds me i gotta update it sometime
ive got 2 tanks with full LED setups, one has been going since april 2010-amazing growth and color(although summer heat wave knocked out nearly all of my sps) and one tank full LED’s for about 9 months now. both are lit with LED spotlights and are nanocustoms par38 and boostled par30’s respectively
My tank so far is 50/50. Still not sure how there gonna do. I will say I saw a Vertex LED strip lite up and was very impressed, but there pretty expensive. I was told they use the same LED as Aqua Illuminations uses in there lights.